If you are Donald J. Trump, you are not very excited about the idea of a “brokered convention.” Aside from falling short of the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination for president outright, the way delegates are chosen, and the nomination process itself, are not ideal for someone running an outsider assault on the party.

A brokered convention is actually less far-fetched after the impressive surge lately by Senator Ted Cruz over the past week. So it is worth sharing some basic insights on how such an event would be politically structured, so that you can make your own political calculations about what might happen at such an event – which would be an epic, political maelstrom. Continue reading→

The last GOP debate before Super Tuesday is in the can. Co-hosted by CNN and Telemundo, it was viewed by 14.5 million people on Thursday evening. The debate crystallized that this is now essentially a three-person show: Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Marco Rubio. And things really got hot, as the gloves came off.

It was painfully clear (to me, anyway) that Trump exposed himself as being all temperament and style, and not very much substance. But given the distrust and discontent of much of the GOP primary electorate, I’ll be interested to see if Trump’s inability to get into specifics causes him more trouble than his decades of ideological inconsistency. Continue reading→

California Republicans are reacting to Thursday’s GOP debate, hosted by the Fox News Channel in Ohio.

Jim Brulte, California Republican Party chair. I was pleased with the depth and breath of the experience of the candidates on the stage. Almost all showed they would be strong leaders and we are fortunate to have top tier candidates.

George Runner, Vice Chairman, State Board of Equalization. Carly deserves to be in the next main event. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Carson had the best overall responses. Trump is all about Trump and is gaming conservatives frustrated with the Washington hypocrisy.

Cynthia Bryant, Executive Director, California Republican Party. Rubio had the line of the night for me when he said the Republican Party is blessed with so many great candidates and the Democrats don’t have a single one.

An out-of-state political group appears to have violated election laws when it funneled $200,000 in anonymous campaign donations to a conservative Orange County committee, which spent the money in a successful bid to shift the longstanding balance of power on the Irvine City Council, documents and interviews show, according to the O.C. Register.

A total of $186,000 was poured into the Irvine mayoral and City Council races by California Term Limits PAC, which was formed three months before the election by Irvine resident and Republican consultant Jon Fleischman.Continue reading→